I am blessed for having such a great academic advisor during grad school. That professor, which also my thesis advisor, not only showed me a lot of things related to my field, but also gave me examples how to be professional yet caring person. He is a taciturn man, but his respect to students was apparent, from being very responsive to emails to being present whenever his support was needed. Some professors I know tend to be curt, eccentric, and unapproachable as if they could gain students respect or could look great in their profession by doing those unnecessary things. Those are people who usually like to harshly criticize students' work during reviews as if having hurt feeling was part of the program. I was observing personality from professors that was useful in the teaching environment. My academic advisor showed me that everyone could be a great professor not matter what kind of personality he had as long as he was passionate of teaching, generous in sharing, and sincere in encouraging.

I am glad my friend and I could meet him for lunch before he left for good to pursue a better career. We almost didn't initiate the meeting because we were worried of having silent and awkward moment, but our concern didn't happen

After lunch, we were given a tour of his house, a famous sustainable home designed by an interdisciplinary team of University of Tennessee students and faculty called
The New Norris House. The house design and the systems were really cool. At the end of our visit, we brought some vegetables from its garden.

Having a giant zucchini and couple stalks of basil from my professor's garden; tomatoes from CSA, and garlics from my friend, Thea's garden, I thought of making zucchini pasta. I got the recipe from a
cooking show and interested because of its simplicity. The name, pasta, is misleading because there is no wheat noodle. Pasta in this recipe refers to long ribbony thin zucchini, so this dish falls on salad category.
Have I told you that I am crazy about pesto? I had pesto for almost everyday this week and will have another pesto lunch today.
Zucchini Pasta
Source: Delicious TV VegEZ
Ingredients:
1 big zucchini
2 cup fresh basil
6 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup walnut/ pinenut
2 medium tomatoes, seeded, drained, coarsely chopped
1 cup olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Using a vegetable peeler, cut the zucchini into lengthwise ribbons. Continue peeling until you get to the seeds at the core of the zucchini. I would save the core for vegetable stir-fry. Transfer the zucchini pasta to a serving plate.
Grind basil, garlic, nuts, and tomatoes in a food processor. Add salt, pepper, and olive oil. Mix again until well blended.
Pour the sauce over the zucchini pasta and serve immediately
